Tag: book

Lydia skirt – Boundless Style

  A new skirt! I have lots of Indonesian batik fabric lying around, including this cotton batik from my sister-in-law. Probably not the best choice for winter, but I can always wear it with tights like I do here. The pattern is from the new book ‘Boundless Style – A Mix-and-Match Sewing Pattern Workbook’ by Kristiann Boos of Victory Patterns. This is no ordinary sewing pattern book. Instead of several separate patterns in one book, you get five bodices, five sleeves, and five skirts that can be mixed and matched to create a whole wardrobe – boundless style. I think it is […]

Book review: Stylish Remakes

I don’t use many Japanese sewing books now, but they have always been special to me. Mainly because the first time I learned sewing was through Japanese sewing books and magazines. The minimalist photos and layouts are one of the characteristics of these books. The model usually just stand or sit on a simple chair (or even the floor), doesn’t do much and not even smiling. The clothes are often loose and flowy with not much shaping, which makes them quite easy to make. Japanese sewing books don’t use many words in their instructions, mainly relying on pictures and diagrams. […]

Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements Magazine: review and giveaway – CLOSED

About a month ago, I was contacted by Swarovski to check out their magazine: Create Your Style, Issue Sound. The magazine is of course about the famous Swarovski crystals, but that is not all. As the name of the magazine suggests, the magazine offers a lot of inspirations and how-to to create your own style using Swarovski crystals. There is a lot of tutorials with step-by-step pictures to make accessories like pendant, earrings, necklaces, bangles, rings, and bags.My favorite is the Unchained Necklace! I love the array of chains in muted color palette. Another one is the Snakebites Bangle which […]

Taffy blouse and Meringue Skirt

  Here’s a couple of projects that I made from Colette Sewing Handbook. I really love this book! I just can’t stop reading it cover to cover. The book has five patterns for size 0-18 in it, but this is not just a pattern book. It covers all the basic knowledge about garment construction with clear explanation and step by step pictures. I love that it also covers about good fitting, types of alteration and how to do it. My first Colette pattern is Negroni that I’ve used to make countless shirts for my husband. Taffy blouse would be my first Colette women’s pattern, this is quite a […]

Sewing for Boys blog tour and giveaway!

Everybody know how hard it is to find nice clothes for boys. Now you think that you can always make them yourself, but where’s the sewing patterns?! It seems that nice sewing pattern for boys are even harder to find. So I was very excited when I heard about Sewing for Boys by Shelly Figueroa and Karen LePage from Patterns by Figgy’s. This book features 24 projects to make a handmade wardrobe for boys. All sewing level is welcomed here, from beginner to advanced. It’s about time we have books like this! I have finished one project from this book, the Henry shirt pattern, and really […]

DIY couture book

The first time I heard about London-based DIY couture by Rosie Martin was in this etsy’s Storque post where she shared her well-written tutorial on making a simple gathered skirt with clear illustrations and step-by-step photos. So I was very surprised when Rosie contacted me one day and offered me one of her books. I chose book number two: How to make a cloak, which I thought would be perfect for the upcoming cold weather. This is actually part of twelve books collection on how to make different types of garments. The other books offered are pleated skirt, gathered dress, wrap top, shrug, straight skirt, grecian dress, jump […]

Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World

Mark Frauenfelder, the founder of BoingBoing.net and the editor in chief of Make magazine has just launched a new book yesterday: ‘Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World‘. I had the chance to read an uncorrected proof before it was launched and it was quite an enjoyable experience. This is not the book if you’re looking for tutorials or DIY projects. It is rather a chronicle of Mark’s journey to find what DIY means to him. Like many people, he had this romantic idea of living in remote island, and he even had the chance to fulfill […]